Ontario, CA – The 2011 GEICO AMA EnduroCross series, presented by Lucas Oil made a first time stop at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California and KTM’s Taddy Blazusiak took the win in front of a large, enthusiastic crowd. Lucas Oil backed Colton Haaker took second ahead of factory Beta backed Cody Webb. Kyle Redmond finished fourth and Geoff Aaron finished fifth.
The afternoon got started with the 30 Expert riders doing a single lap against the clock running in reverse order of the current point standings to determine gate picks for the heat races. There is a lot of bragging rights on the line and Blazusiak was the final rider to take the track and set the fast time ahead of Mike Brown and Haaker.
Blazusiak, Brown and Aaron each won their heat races to take the best gate picks for the main event. Wally Palmer was among the top riders not make the main after a nasty tumble during his heat race. Jacob Argubright, Kevin Rookstool, Ryan Sandoval and Matt Oppen were among the other riders to miss the cut for the main event.
Blazusiak jumped to the front of the field at the start followed closely by Aaron and Haaker. Aaron stalled his bike on the first lap and then Haaker immediately closed in on Blazusiak and stayed close for the first half of the race before slowly losing touch. Redmond, Gary Sutherlin and Webb were equally close to Haaker and it appeared that any one of them could have taken second before Haaker started to pull a little gap. Sutherlin made a mistake to fall from contention and Webb applied pressure to Redmond to finally make the pass just before the white flag; taking the final podium spot. Aaron managed to work his way back up to fifth ahead of Monster Kawasaki’s Justin Soule. Sutherlin held on for sixth ahead of Brown, who had a pretty tough main event and lost a lot of ground to Taddy in the championship after coming into this event in second. Keith Sweeten, the youngster from Oregon finished ninth ahead of Destry Abbott and Rory Sullivan, who is a very accomplished Motocross and Off Road rider made his first main event after three years of trying finished 11th after a big crash in the rocks.
In addition to the Expert class, EnduroCross events include Open Amateur, Vet 35+ and TrialsCross classes. The top two finishers in each class also earn a spot in the Vegas Grand Championship Finals for each respective class. The Vet class was won by Todd Sciaqua over Kurt Nicoll and Baja Legend Johnny Campbell. The Amateur class was won by Eric Rhoten with Matt Crouch and Max Gerston rounding out the podium. The TrialsCross class had an amazing finish with Andrew Oldar making a last second pass on Mike Damm that ended with both of them crashing as they crossed the finish line. Twelve year old Ty Cullins took third.
GEICO AMA EnduroCross, Presented by Lucas Oil Ontario, California Expert Main Event Results
- Taddy Blazusiak
- Colton Haaker
- Cody Webb
- Kyle Redmond
- Geoff Aaron
- Justin Soule
- Gary Sutherlin
- Mike Brown
- Keith Sweeten
- Destry Abbott
- Rory Sullivan
Denver, Colorado will be the next stop for the GEICO AMA EnduroCross series on Saturday, October 1st. This is the home race for Geoff Aaron and the GEICO Honda rider won the event last year.
Tickets information is available at www.EnduroCross.com.